By Nicole Falco
From her dining room window, the Andersons' next-door neighbor, Paula Tausch, saw Anderson, 34, taking out his garbage at about 10 p.m. Tausch was inspecting her house plants.
At about the same time, Lisa Cayenne's 20-year-old daughter saw Anderson watering his front lawn, as he usually did at that time, from her house across the street.
Other than his attacker, Cayenne's daughter and Tausch could very well be the last people to see Anderson alive.
Anderson, an accountant at New York Life in Manhattan, was found dead in the basement of his North Valley Stream home by his wife after she returned from the movies at midnight. Anderson was killed by a single gunshot to his head, police said.
According to Nassau detectives, Anderson may have known his attacker.
"We don't feel this is a random occurrence," said Homicide Squad Det. Sgt. Richard Larsen. "At this point we have a lot of questions and no answers."
No weapons were found at the scene and no witnesses have come forward, Larsen said. Larsen said there is no indication that this attack was the result of a robbery gone bad because there were no signs of forced entry; suicide has been ruled out.
Upon returning from the movies Anderson's wife called out to her husband but got no response. She headed downstairs to her basement and saw her husband of five years sprawled out on the floor. She grabbed a portable phone to call 911 and ran with her boys to Tausch's house.
Michelle rang Tausch's bell. Tausch had already settled in for the night so she was a little slow in answering the door. Michelle started banging on the front door. Tausch answered her door and found her neighbor, "shocked and disoriented."
"She was on the phone with police. She was saying, 'He's on the floor in the basement. I don't know what's wrong with him.'," Tausch recalled.
Soon after, Cayenne's daughters heard police sirens on their block and called their mom. Cayenne was at work and her daughters were scared.
Tausch remained with Michelle until police arrived. When they came, police took Michelle aside as Tausch looked after the Andersons' two-year-old. Only months before the Andersons had offered their condolences to Tausch on her father's death.
"There was no reason for this to happen," Tausch said.
Portrait of a neighbor
Since early Sunday morning a Nassau County Police Department Mobile Command Center has been parked in front of 42 Frank Street set off by yellow "Police Line, Do Not Cross," tape, as a constant reminder to neighbors of what happened late Saturday night. A child's toy rests on its side in the driveway, probably "A.J.'s", but Michelle and her two children haven't been home since the murder. Instead, they are reported to be in seclusion with family. A smart move, since Frank Street also became a temporary post for various media outlets after word of the murder spread.
Anderson's murder is a shock to his Frank Street neighbors. They consider their neighborhood and their street to be quiet.
This is the first murder in Valley Stream since Mark Petronio, 31, killed 23-year-old Jeffrey Walter, of Mineola, in the basement of his Valley Stream home in November 2000 following a dispute over the purchase of drugs. Petronio was sentenced to 25 years-to-life in July.
"Valley Stream is quiet, nice, there is nothing happening here. It's the perfect place to live," Tausch said. "It finally hit me [Sunday] night. I started crying. I was sitting watching TV and I got depressed and nervous," Tausch said. "I had only said hello to him the other day."
Stephen White lives down the block from the Andersons and had a telephone conversation with his friend of 20 years the afternoon of his death.
White and Anderson met when the two lived in the same apartment building in South Ozone Park. White said the Andersons moved to Valley Stream about two years ago. Anderson had told White that he and Michelle, 33, a New York Life payroll department employee, were looking to buy a house. At the time, White and his wife had been living in Valley Stream a little over two years. White told his friend there were three houses up for sale on his block.
"Six months later they were closing on their house," White said. "He wanted to better himself and his family and he was really, really doing that."
White called Anderson, a Hampton University graduate, a "great guy" and a "true friend."
"He was a true friend of mine. I don't have friends who are into hanging out and doing the wrong thing...I never did...It's rare that you continue a friendship through to adulthood. That's why I call him a true friend," White said.
White said Anderson was always doing something to his house. Anderson was a regular at Home Depot. Anderson's neighbors also remember seeing him in his front yard, mowing and watering his lawn.
"He took pride in his home. He was glad to be a homeowner. You could tell that. He was always talking to his neighbors. He was into this - 'I'm a community member, I have a home.'," said Cayenne. Cayenne's younger daughter recently graduated Alden Terrace Elementary School with Haamad, Anderson's step-son.
Cayenne said she still can't believe something like this happened so close to home, but right now she is thinking about the Anderson family.
"They were quiet people. He was a good person," Cayenne said.
